1. Field of the Invention
The invention is directed in general to an angled coaxial cable connector and more specifically to such a connector that makes use of an insulation displacement termination method to minimize assembly time and connector size.
2. Discussion of Related Art
Coaxial cable connectors often have a right-angle, or some other angle, design to facilitate electrical engagement with connection ports or printed circuit boards. This can eliminate the need to significantly bend the cable, and thereby possibly damage the connection between the connector and cable, when making the electrical engagement. Typical right-angle coaxial cable connectors use traditional methods of terminating the cable in the connector such as soldering and crimping. Both have advantages and disadvantages. In the soldering method, the size of the connector can be relatively small because the cable is brought in perpendicular to an axis of the interface between two contact sections. However, this procedure is time consuming and often hazardous. The crimping method is faster and non-hazardous in comparison to the soldering method. There are two types of crimp configurations. One requires two contacts, resulting in increased component count. The other requires only one contact, but the cable has to be bent, so this method requires a longer connector length due to the bend radius of the cable.
One way of doing away with the need for two separate terminals crimped or soldered together to provide the right angle turn within the connector is disclosed in co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/016,919, filed Dec. 21, 2004. A connector assembly has first and second main components. A terminal crimped on an end of a coaxial cable is inserted through the second component and secured in the first component when the two components are in a straight or in-line configuration. The cable is secured to the second component. Then the second component is rotated relative to the first component to bend the cable and transform the assembly into a right-angle connector.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,632,486 provides an example of how insulation displacement terminals have been used in coaxial cable connectors. A ribbon-type coaxial cable has its outer jacket and each conductive sheath stripped back from the inner insulation layer and signal wire. The cable is inserted into and secured by adhesive within a first housing part of insulating material. A second, separate housing part also made of insulating material contains female terminals having insulation displacement contact portions at one end. The insulation displacement contact portions protrude from the second housing part. When the two housing parts are guided together the insulation displacement contact portions cut through the inner insulation layers to contact the signal wires and electrically connect the signal wires with the female terminals. While the method disclosed in this patent may provide a solution for terminating ribbon-type coaxial cables, it requires a large, two-piece connector and does not address problems associated with connectors requiring center contact terminals with concentric outer terminal sockets. A smaller size, lower component count connector with a fast termination method would provide a significant improvement to these existing types of connectors.